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Causes of Blurred Vision |
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What is blurred vision?
There are many types of eye problems and visual disturbances that include blurred vision, halos, blind spots, floaters, and other symptoms. Blurred vision is the loss of sharpness of vision and the inability to see small details and blind spots called scotomas, which are dark holes in the visual field in which nothing can be seen. You must know that changes in vision, blurriness, blind spots, halos around lights, or dimness of vision should always be evaluated by a medical professional. Such changes may represent an eye disease, aging, eye injury, or a condition like diabetes that affects many organs in the body. Whatever the cause is, vision changes should never be ignored because they can get worse and significantly impact the quality of your life so professional help is always necessary. As you determine which professional to see, you should know that opticians dispense glasses and do not diagnose eye problems. Optometrists perform eye exams and may diagnose eye problems, so they prescribe glasses and contact lenses while in some states they prescribe eye drops to treat diseases. Ophthalmologists are physicians who diagnose and treat diseases that affect the eyes so these doctors may also provide routine vision care services, such as prescribing glasses and contact lenses. Sometimes an eye problem is part of a general health problem, when your primary care provider should also be involved.
Common causes for blurred vision
Vision changes and problems can be caused by many different conditions, such as presbyopia, or difficulty focusing on objects that are close, which is common in the elderly.
Cataracts is also common cause, and this is cloudiness over the eye’s lens. This is causing poor nighttime vision, halos around lights, and sensitivity to glare while daytime vision is eventually affected. This condition is also common in the elderly. Glaucoma is the next cause for blurred vision, which is increased pressure in the eye, causing poor night vision, blind spots, and loss of vision to either side. That is a major cause of blindness. Glaucoma can happen gradually or suddenly but if it is sudden, it is a medical emergency. Diabetic retinopathy is complication of diabetes that can lead to bleeding into the retina and is another common cause of blindness. Macular degeneration is loss of central vision, blurred vision, especially while reading, distorted vision, like seeing wavy lines, and colors appearing faded. That is the most common cause of blindness in people over age 60. Further cause for blurred vision are eye infections, inflammation, or injury. Floaters are tiny particles drifting across the eye and although often brief and harmless, they may be a sign of retinal detachment. Retinal detachment with symptoms that include floaters, flashes of light across your visual field, or a sensation of a shade or curtain hanging on one side of your visual field could also cause blurred vision. Optic neuritis is inflammation of the optic nerve from infection or multiple sclerosis, so you may have pain when you move your eye or touch it through the eyelid. Stroke or TIA, brain tumor and bleeding into the eye, are also causes for blurred vision. Temporal arteritis is important condition, and it is inflammation of an artery in the brain that supplies blood to the optic nerve. Migraine headaches occur as spots of light, halos, or zigzag patterns. These are common symptoms prior to the start of the headache. An ophthalmic migraine is when you have only visual symptoms without a headache at all. Other potential causes of vision problems include fatigue, overexposure to the outdoors, temporary and reversible blurring of vision, and many medications. Medications that can affect vision include antihistamines, anticholinergics, digitalis derivatives, some high blood pressure pills, indomethacin, phenothiazines, medications for malaria, ethambutol, and many others.
Home care for blurred vision
Safety measures may be necessary if you have any vision problems, for example if you have trouble seeing at night, you should not drive after dusk. It may be helpful to increase the amount of light in a room or arrange a home to remove hazards, and specialist at a low-vision clinic may be able to help. If you experience partial or complete blindness in one or both eyes, even if it is only temporary you should immediatelly call your doctor. It is also important to call him if your experience double vision, even if it is temporary and if you have a sensation of a shade being pulled over your eyes or a curtain being drawn from the side. Blind spots, halos around lights, or areas of distorted vision appear suddenly are warning signs as well. If you have eye pain, especially if also red call the doctor because painful eye is a medical emergency. If you have trouble seeing objects to either side, difficulty seeing at night or when reading, gradual loss of the sharpness of your vision, difficulty distinguishing colors, blurred vision when trying to view objects near or far, or diabetes or family history of diabetes you should definitely talk to your doctor. Your provider will check vision, eye movements, pupils, the back of your eye and eye pressure when needed. An overall medical evaluation will be done if necessary, but you should not be worried about it, just report your problem to professional.
What should doctor ask you?
It is very important that doctor knows was it sudden or gradual in onset and if gradual over what period of time you experienced your blurred vision. Exactly what part of the visual field is affected, is it unilateral, bilateral or homonymous, is there just blurring or actual loss of visual field, was this happened before and are there any history of trauma are details very important for appropriate diagnosis. The doctor should also ask you if there is any pain, but it is important to differentiate between pain in the eye and pain in the head. Are there any associated features like fortification spectra, personal and family history of eye disease are also very important questions the doctor should know.
Diagnosing blurred vision
Medical history is very important as well as medication because drugs may be toxic to the eye or precipitate glaucoma. Examination consists of looking at the eyes, are the pupils the same size and is there any abnormality of shape of pupils or clarity of the eyes. It is also important to know if pupils respond equally and briskly to light and accommodation, and if the external ocular movements are full. The doctor will probably check visual acuity. Exact previous visual acuity will probably not be on record but note strength of spectacles if it is worn. One of the steps is to use the ophthalmoscope to check the anterior segment to check if there is any discharge, vascular injection or swelling and if the corneal reflection clear and free of irregularities. For diagnosis it is extremely important to know if there is blood known as hyphema, or pus known as hypopyon, in the anterior chamber. In some cases doctor will doubt blurred vision is because there is cataract present. To get exact diagnosis it is helpful to check the blood pressure and check urine for glucose, examine the pulse for atrial fibrillation, and listen for any carotid bruit.
If the fovea or macula is affected there will be dramatic loss of vision. Investigation will depend upon what is suspected; it may require urgent on the same day referral to an ophthalmologist for slit lamp examination and a definitive diagnosis. Differential diagnosis means it is helpful to divide into unilateral and bilateral, including homonymous, sudden and gradual in onset, and painful and painless. In addition, glaucoma may affect both eyes but usually only one at a time has an acute attack. Giant cell arteritis may affect one eye initially and immediate starting of steroids is essential to protect the other eye, and chemicals or foreign bodies in the eye may be unilateral or bilateral. Unilateral, sudden and painful are often associated with a painful red eye, which could be corneal abrasion or infection, anterior uveitis, traumatic hyphema, or acute glaucoma. There may even be prostration and vomiting as well. Giant cell or temporal arteritis may be associated with a painful or tender head but the eye is not usually painful and there is usually complete unilateral loss of vision rather than a complaint of blurred vision. Some people get a typical migraine prodrome without a following headache and it is usually unilateral but may progress to be homonymous. Blurred vision can be part of a toxic illness, which is apparent the patient that is pyrexial and unwell. There will probably be a history of welding a number of hours earlier with inadequate protection and often the patient will offer the diagnosis on its own. It is interesting that drugs like steroids and anticholinergics can also have similar effects. Cerebrovascular disease may lead to damage to the visual pathways and optic cortex. Because of that, there may or may not be macular sparing associated with visual disturbance that is often homonymous. |
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kittykat |
1 Year, 1 month, 5 days, 7 hours, 46 minutes ago |
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